Long Stoic Poems

Long Stoic Poems. Below are the most popular long Stoic by PoetrySoup Members. You can search for long Stoic poems by poem length and keyword.


Premium Member I Want But Don't Need

I Want, But Don't Need

Yes, "I Want, But Don't Need" is my waistwatcher creed 
     as I walk by each vending machine.
All those chocolate chips calling out to my hips,
     colored Reese's in pieces - obscene!
Will willpower surmount the cholesterol count
     of PayDays or some Rice Krispie Treats?
Can I even forsake the caloric intake
     of LifeSavers, the smallest of sweets?

Yummy Snickers and Kit-Kats, peanut M&Ms, 
     with three flavors of Hostess fruit pie,
I am hoping my brain simply vetoes 
     the Cheetos, Doritos, and Fritos, oh my!
Dare I ponder the truth of the harm Baby Ruth 
     will inflict on my belly's increase?
Soon my sweet tooth will bargain with riveting jargon,
     "Please buy it, I'll just eat a piece!

Then there's Hershey's and Twix, and six kinds of trail mix.
     And the drinks! Pepsi, Root beer, and Coke,
Dr. Pepper, YooHoo, Orange Crush, Mt. Dew
     render new resolutions a joke.
Then two hours post-lunch, there's that nice Nestle Crunch
     overwhelming my stoic resolve,
And the Heath bars and Dove bars and Clark bars and Mars bars 
     enticing my will to dissolve.

I am one of those hoarders of nickels and quarters -
     should ever the munchies catch fire.
Self-control starts to fail when those Oreos hail,
     calling out to my carnal desire.
In a fog, I hear clinking of coins, with lights blinking
     then eating and drinking. No sorrow!
For I just HAD to buy it, the heck with my diet -
     "Whole 30" can just start tomorrow!
© John Watt  Create an image from this poem.


Premium Member Unless Seen and Known

Of all I hear of wild Amazon lands,
Of terraces and quiet shores of Bali,
Of Rome, where past and present join their hands—
Unless both seen and known, they seem but folly.

Of Stoic, hedonist philosophies;
Tall structures rising behind scaffolding;
And emblematic, vast theosophies—
Unseen, they fall to heavy dust-gathering.

How might I feel within the quiet tomb-womb
Of Mother Earth, wrapped in the final dust?
From here, like a pure lotus, I shall bloom;
Unseen and known, how can I grow in trust?

Can soul-deep truth be reaped from glance and eye,
When boundless streams of unseen wonders sigh?
Form: Sonnet

Premium Member A Winter's Day Evening False Alarm

Pregnant mothers of the waters they give birth to
Took an afternoon/evening walk across the vast sky
As they slowly strolled across the once light-hued way
These once ivory-hued maidens took on a cerulean haze.

Beneath them down on the terrestrial plane
A lone stoic eagle struck a statue-like pose
Clamping his paws around a small branch
Of a skyward huge old naked walnut tree

Across the way, atop a lamp-pole, perched
A huge black hawk with its wings spread wide.
The chilled ground with fading grass was carpeted
All over with loads of brownish-hued decaying leaves

The graveyard silence that encapsulated this whole scene
Was broken by the squawking of a V-shaped flight of ducks
Soaring with waving wings across the slowly darkening way;
As evening eased in, the pregnant clouds just hung in labor.

Premium Member Skelotons


In a cupboard,  silent skeletons sleep
Where darkness holds its secrets, buried deep,
Their shape unseen, yet ever close at hand,
That any time may burst across the land.

A quiet hum, a stillness in the air,
A spectral chill, that the winds can lay bare,
But carried through wings of time, strong and true,
Mysteries that very few ever knew.

The sands of time may slowly slip away,
But the secrets stand still, through passing days,
A stark riddle, etched in darkness of night
Of journeys made, from dawn to fading light.

No whispered word, no sigh of pain or glee,
Just jumbled echoes, indistinct and  free,
A testament of tall bills begotten,
Beneath the gaze of the unblinking sun.

The hollow gaze, where once bright eyes did gleam,
Now holds the fragments of a waking dream,
The cupboard`s key declared lost, with no sign, 
A silent story, sincerely sublime.

The rhythm of the mind, a reflective sound,
No longer works, where wizard can be found.
Yet life's own pulse, in memory remains,
Through flowing currents, in the subtle grains.

A stoic stance before the coming storm,
A dead silence, to keep the spirit warm,
For though the surprises stink over time
Their essence rests hidden, without a chime.

At long last the cat gets out of the bag
With the dwelling changing under new flag,
Bursting open of the cupboard with force,
Revealing tons of debt burden at source.

One cannot but gaze at the skeletons
As the damage left after a cyclone
And thereafter think of ways to redress
The legated dwelling left in distress.

The simple truth is a lovely facade
May hide an interior that is flawed
And one need to think deep and wide to scan
The space before the future one can plan.
Form: Rhyme

Premium Member Calving - As Told By Bessie Cow

He comes so faithfully when called,
   our veterinary doctor friend,
to our dear family of cows;
   upon his help, we do depend.

The birthing of our calves amaze
   him more than ever, and it seems
so many of us cows need help
   when labor turns into extremes.

The labor process on the farm
   demands assistance with some births;
with calves too large or feet come first,
   we cannot pass those hefty girths.

With doctor's hands or puller tool,
   to help ease out the stuck fast calf,
it's hit or miss it's born alive;
   the chances surely cut in half.

How sad it is, with long delays,
   some little ones will meet their death;
at last, be pulled out on the hay,
   but cannot raise a single breath.

But when it works, oh what a site!
   Our mama cows, right there to tend
their little ones who know their moms;
   on instant bonding we depend.

Throughout it all, we cows are brave
   and seem to somehow bear the pain.
Sometimes we moo, but otherwise,
   are stoic, calm, endure the strain.
 
How blessed we are to have a vet
   who helps to ease our calving plight.
No matter what, he's always there
   at crack of dawn or through the night.


Sandra M. Haight

~2nd Place~
Contest: Second Chance 2
Sponsor: Eve Roper
Judged: 06/08/2016

~NA~
Contest: Back To The Barnyard
Sponsor: Matt Caliri
Judged: 03/20/2016


Premium Member Where Are My Tears

Where Are My Tears

   A neighbor, friend and kindred spirit passed into the next after midnight.
   Grief is the most difficult emotion to capture and put into a collection.
   Loss for some is not remarkable. We all suffer in different ways. Some are
   stoic, some find comfort in wailing, tears, sobbing into a loved one's casket.

   I lost loved ones and couldn't conjure a single tear nor a heavy heart. I'm broke
   is what I thought and maybe I am. I care so much for so many but my sorrow seems
   to be lacking. Where is my sorrow? Where are my tears? I cried only once I can
   remember. Our dog Rusty was sick and died and I wept for weeks. There were my tears.

Ennius Jovial

Il mito di una statua da giardino presso il Golfo di Napoli
Ballad Written By: Catullus Propertius
--------------------------------------------
The stoic stance
she stands
in the gardens of
Dorking
a statue carved to impress
her beauty the poet
writers mystery
a story of love and regret
a sexton the sailor carry's
to the shore she bathe
beneath the sun
he wishes for the sweetness
of oranges
for which til then
he never had none.
Arancia Rossa di Sicilia
come back to Surrentio
the mermaid sings her song
Carnival of Ivrea
she greets men
the charm of a Meridians voice
Napulitano Ballads and songs
the sweetness of the 
Napulitano Orange
Sweet the nights of
 natural pool of 
Bagni della Regina
She swam in the waters there
and became a statue
in the garden that sings
Form: Bio

Premium Member A Tough Guy's Recompense

Stoic, is my demeanor
Masculine through and through
I’m as tough as the tough guys come
More manly than all of you

Emotions are for sissies
My tears had never flown
Catastrophes, I greeted with smiles
Heartbreak I’d never shown

She was all of five years old
The sweetest child I’d ever seen
To be told that she is dying of cancer
Was a diagnosis too obscene

Forty years of pent up feelings
I had learned to keep inside
Putting up a manly façade
Not even knowing what I did hide

And then the door flew open
As wide as wide could be
The dam holding back my humanity
Broke down inside of me

I shaved my head to be like her
I held her little hand
I would cry and laugh and giggle with her
Every moment that I can

Being a man doesn’t mean pretending
That your heart cannot be touched
It means being there to share your love
Helping others when life gets rough

It took a five year old, little girl
To really show me how to be a man
The courage she had to fight her fight
Proved her to be tougher than I am

I no longer hold back tears
I say, “I love you” all the time
Showing the world exactly what I feel
I no longer view as a hideous crime

I wept at her funeral
And, I’ve cried every night since
That door remains wide open
A tough guy’s recompense
© Joe Flach  Create an image from this poem.
Form: Rhyme

Jesus of Galilee

I walked one day where Jesus trod
In a village along the shore
I stood upon a sloping hill 
Where he preached to five thousand or more

I ventured out onto the sea
Where Peter and John plied their trade
With mine own eyes I saw the place
Where Jesus taught and disciples made

I viewed the hills panoramic
Stoic, stately, still, and compact
From this backdrop He gave meaning
To faith, hope, and love so abstract

I recalled Peter and the others
When a fierce wind they had to face
Then came Jesus on the water
Extending His hand of saving grace

I thought of how much in common,
Though it’s been two thousand years
We have with those who lived in that day
How Jesus still can calm our fears

Jesus did not consider great
Those holding power in their hand
But had respect and compassion
For the weary who worked the land.

I was there with many travelers
In their tears I discovered a clue
In each was a burdensome story
We had only told to a few
Form: Rhyme

Your Finest Hour

“Your Finest Hour”



pour a paint can
from isolation
a heart torn
blood spills Red 
on the crushed White empty now
absorbed in the mother vein

Stop.

a tall tree, Green, waiting, 
so is life and dreams
she always speaks
of a beautiful future
fresh, romantic notions
words are always running diamond Silver streams

of something always better, Golden, 
Bright Blue skies -
what was lost 
was stolen, 
to somehow be retrieved
not now red apples rolling 

down the mountain
climbed long and hard
bitter seeds,like bricks held 
in an apron, 
red apples scattered
rolling to an Ocean

Time.

What is worthy in the future 
is worth something now;

“Look in thy glass and tell 
the face thou viewest
now is the time that face
should form another”

from the broken 
Tarot Tower

"...calls back the lovely 
April of her prime"

thou art thy mother’s glass
and she in thee
stops at Red and reads
your painted codex, stoic
emblazoned with potent power 

Silenced, 
in this dark time
and proud
dear daughter,
winning the Game
in this,

your finest hour

(LadyLabyrinth / 2020) 
for my daughter, Georgia
with love,
your mother.




"and now our parents are long departed
who can finish the songs they started?”









Artwork: Georgia Murcell

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